He's Got Teeth and He Knows How to Use Them!

And so, we've reached another milestone with Isaac...he got his first two teeth! After several months of teething and being miserable, the first one popped through on July 8th...just a couple days after turning 9 months. The second one made its appearance 3 weeks later on July 29th (Daddy's birthday).

While I'm happy he's finally getting his teeth, everything else is suffering. This kid chews on everything...toys, furniture, my fingers....you name it! Here he is taking a bite out of the chair I use while sewing.

Now the occassional nibble on my furniture doesn't really bother me. I mean, afterall, our furniture is not the best to start with. But, the beautiful crib that I so carefully picked out for him during my pregnancy has taken a beating! Look at this...in less than a month's time...

Ryleigh used her crib for 2.5 years and it isn't even half as bad as that! Obviously...something needed to be done. I got tired of going to get him out of his crib to find him covered in black paint chips. That can't be healthy! There's a woman on my FAM team on Etsy that makes quilted crib rail guards for just this purpose. Her name is Amy and you can check out her shop at: http://www.newenglandquilter.etsy.com/. She makes lots of wonderful items - go check it out! I seriously contemplated ordering one from her, and even spoke to her about it. But, with a little nudging from her, I decided to take on the task by myself. She urged me to try it on my own not because she didn't want to do it for me, but because she's a wonderful woman and didn't want me to have to wait the time, or spend the money when she knew I could do it myself. She pointed me to a great tutorial that she posted on her blog. So...I decided to give it a try. I decided that I wanted this to be a quick project which didn't require me to make any trips to the fabric store. So, I didn't end up following Amy's tutorial precisely, but reading it sure did help me on my journey! I remembered that I had a bunch of blue and white fleece left over from when I made a Boppy cover for Isaac. So, I dug that out, did some measuring, sewed two layers of it together, added some snaps, and voila! Here's my very simplified and not-as-pretty version of a crib rail cover.

As you can see, Isaac is happy with the results. Now hopefully he doesn't move on to a different area of the crib to satisfy his need to chew. I see a crib completely covered in fleece in my future!

Have a little beaver of your own and need a crib rail cover? Go visit Amy! http://www.newenglandquilter.etsy.com/. Or, if you know how to sew - go read her tutorial!